Outline of US History by U.S. Department of State - HTML preview

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CHAPTER 2: THE COLONIAL PERIOD

the New York region long after the the world . Not bound to a single

fall of New Netherland and their in- crop as was Virginia, North and

tegration into the British colonial South Carolina also produced and

system . Their sharp-stepped gable exported rice and indigo, a blue dye

roofs became a permanent part of obtained from native plants that was

the city’s architecture, and their used in coloring fabric . By 1750 more

merchants gave Manhattan much than 100,000 people lived in the two

of its original bustling, commercial colonies of North and South Caroli-

atmosphere .

na . Charleston, South Carolina, was

the region’s leading port and trading

THE SOUTHERN COLONIES

center .

I

In the southernmost colonies, as

n contrast to New England and everywhere else, population growth

the middle colonies, the Southern in the backcountry had special sig-

colonies were predominantly rural nificance . German immigrants

settlements .

and Scots-Irish, unwilling to live in

By the late 17th century, Virgin- the original Tidewater settlements

ia’s and Maryland’s economic and where English influence was strong,

social structure rested on the great pushed inland . Those who could not

planters and the yeoman farmers . secure fertile land along the coast, or

The planters of the Tidewater re- who had exhausted the lands they

gion, supported by slave labor, held held, found the hills farther west a

most of the political power and the bountiful refuge . Although their

best land . They built great houses, hardships were enormous, restless

adopted an aristocratic way of life, settlers kept coming; by the 1730s

and kept in touch as best they could they were pouring into the Shenan-

with the world of culture overseas .

doah Valley of Virginia . Soon the in-

The yeoman farmers, who worked terior was dotted with farms .

smal er tracts, sat in popular assem-

Living on the edge of Native

blies and found their way into political American country, frontier families

office . Their outspoken independence built cabins, cleared the wilderness,

was a constant warning to the oligar- and cultivated maize and wheat .

chy of planters not to encroach too The men wore leather made from

far upon the rights of free men .

the skin of deer or sheep, known

The settlers of the Carolinas as buckskin; the women wore gar-

quickly learned to combine agricul- ments of cloth they spun at home .

ture and commerce, and the mar- Their food consisted of venison,

ketplace became a major source of wild turkey, and fish . They had their

prosperity . Dense forests brought own amusements: great barbecues,

revenue: Lumber, tar, and resin from dances, housewarmings for newly

the longleaf pine provided some of married couples, shooting matches,

the best shipbuilding materials in and contests for making quilted

26

OUTLINE OF U.S. HISTORY

blankets . Quilt-making remains an land colonies, except for Rhode Is-

American tradition today .

land, followed its example .

The Pilgrims and Puritans had

SOCIETY, SCHOOLS, AND

brought their own little librar-

CULTURE

ies and continued to import books

A

from London . And as early as the

significant factor deterring the 1680s, Boston booksellers were do-

emergence of a powerful aristocratic ing a thriving business in works of

or gentry class in the colonies was classical literature, history, politics,

the ability of anyone in an estab- philosophy, science, theology, and

lished colony to find a new home on belles-lettres . In 1638 the first print-

the frontier . Time after time, domi- ing press in the English colonies and

nant Tidewater figures were obliged the second in North America was in-

to liberalize political policies, land- stalled at Harvard College .

grant requirements, and religious

The first school in Pennsylvania

practices by the threat of a mass exo- was begun in 1683 . It taught reading,

dus to the frontier .

writing, and keeping of accounts .

Of equal significance for the

Thereafter, in some fashion, every

future were the foundations of Quaker community provided for the

American education and culture es- elementary teaching of its children .

tablished during the colonial period . More advanced training — in classi-

Harvard College was founded in cal languages, history, and literature

1636 in Cambridge, Massachusetts . — was offered at the Friends Public

Near the end of the century, the School, which still operates in Phila-

College of William and Mary was delphia as the William Penn Charter

established in Virginia . A few School . The school was free to the

years later, the Collegiate School of poor, but parents were required to

Connecticut, later to become Yale pay tuition if they were able .

University, was chartered .

In Philadelphia, numerous private

Even more noteworthy was the schools with no religious affiliation

growth of a school system main- taught languages, mathematics, and

tained by governmental authority . natural science; there were also night

The Puritan emphasis on reading schools for adults . Women were not

directly from the Scriptures under- entirely overlooked, but their edu-

scored the importance of literacy . In cational opportunities were limited

1647 the Massachusetts Bay Colony to training in activities that could

enacted the “ye olde deluder Satan” be conducted in the home . Private

Act, requiring every town having teachers instructed the daughters

more than 50 families to establish of prosperous Philadelphians in

a grammar school (a Latin school to French, music, dancing, painting,

prepare students for college) . Shortly singing, grammar, and sometimes

thereafter, all the other New Eng- bookkeeping .

27